Beyond the compact magnetic domain wall

Domain wall dynamics in wide submicrometer wires is investigated to understand the fundamental mechanisms that limit wall mobility, both experimentally by magneto-optical Kerr effect and by micromagnetic simulations. It is found that the dynamic domain wall structure departs significantly from the current description of a compact entity when evolving along the wire. The wall is composed of several substructures, each one propagating and evolving in a different dynamic regime with very different velocities. © 2011 American Physical Society.